Hi folks, just want to say before I start, i'm not a developer, i'm a marketing person for a few phone companies.
I work with a company who are currently purchasing an MTK6589 based device called the Defender from China.
It's running Android 4.2.2.
Tasks Required:
Re-mapping of SOS and PTT buttons
Some of the app partners looking to use the handset want to map buttons so that they can use the handset with their apps but on smaller order quantities this is difficult for the factory to manage.
The intents given by the factory don't appear to work which I believe might be because they are already being used by the CallForHelp app and the built in Walkie Talkie app.
We require a build of the OS on there but with intents from each button that are open to apps picking them up.
Idle Running Processes Setup
Additionally we found out that when the handset goes into idle mode it actually stops a lot of the running processes. We've had one software version done that keeps the accelerometer running and another app partner managed to force open the bluetooth connection when connected to a bluetooth speaker accessory but ideally we'd like to get this looked at and see what processes would be best to keep running.
For this we are looking to work with a UK based developer and in the future we will require more assistance with the handset, if you're interested then please reply to this thread or drop me a message and we can chat further.
Thanks, Ben.
Related
We have a Service with some threads dedicated to network communication. It's heartbeat-type traffic - a quick request-response a couple of times a second with small amounts of data. The problem is that a thread sometimes just stops being run for 20 or more seconds when a network request is made (that's based on calling System.currentTimeMillis() at the start and finish of the network request, and I know from measurements on the server side that the request was completed in a fraction of a second).
The advice out there suggests setting thread priorities using the Android-specific API and/or the pure Java API. It also suggests poking the service into the foreground with notifications, because Android favours foreground processes. I've tried the thread priorities, doesn't work. I'm currently trying the foreground notification trick, I don't know yet if it solves the problem.
Even if any of those techniques happen to work, it stil seems brittle - the kind of thing that could stop working with a hardware change or operating system upgrade. Is there any way of telling Android that a given thread is important enough to get attention a few times a second, and to have it treated as a requirement and not as a suggestion?
This isn't a general release application that needs to be a good citizen and let other apps have their turn: we're running it on a tablet that's dedicated just to running this application, and that we can modify in any way that's required to support the application.
Have you come across this problem before? What do you suggest?
Thanks.
Hello, I'm rather new around here, but not very new to the Android development world. I haven't made my own ROM before, but application development, rooting, and the like are nothing new to me.
I'm currently working on a project installing a home automation/security system. There is a central server that everything will be connected to, and I need to develop an Android app that will connect to that server and be able to send it commands and recieve basic output from it.
What we're wanting to do, is use cheap tablets running like Ice Cream Sandwich and put a very very light custom ROM on, that only has the core Android OS, and this app, then on boot automatically opens to this app, and you can't exit it or do anything else from the device.
I'm not really sure where to start with this, or if making a ROM is the wrong way to do this, if anyone has any resources or tips that could be useful I'd greatly appreciate it.
home automation rom
I'm interested in this too. Did you find out anything more on this perhaps?
It is very late to answer, but ...
Why not use a web-server that communicates with the control hardware?
Possible from a PLC or one PI controller?
Here a screenshot of my system running on an industrial PLC.
It is only the main screen what you can see but i can control everything,
so far i can get the network protocol with wireshark .
Did this ever go anywhere?
Hello.
I am here seeking for help and advice on how to approach the development of a security framework (via APP or via hacked Android ROM to be used by kids, that could be monitored by adults (parents or legal tutors).
The idea would be to develop a (white hat) hacked ROM, that would allow the kids to communicate with their friends, but also would allow their parents to supervise/monitor in real time what their children are doing, who are they communicating with and that way protect their children. The thing is not to spy on our kids, but to be able to check regularly if there is anything wrong going on with our kids (mobbing, insults or harassment). Kids aged (10-14) could be influenced by other kids, adults, or adults simulating being kids, and on some occasions they can be tricked to do things without their parents consent/knowledge that can lead to a tricky situation.
When I was a kid, we had the telephone (wired telephone, of course) on the middle of the hallway, so all our conversations were basically family-public. The truth is that there are not many secret things a 10yo kid could/should talk about, but nowadays, it could be a little bit worrying to lend a smartphone to a kid. I think it's just as letting a kid drive a car; he can do it right, or not be able to evaluate the whole consequences of driving a car.
Talking to other parents around me, they all found very interesting the idea of having a telephone that one could lend to their son, having the kid available all the time, and with the peace of mind that you could know what's going on. Of course the kid should be aware of this, and that the telephone comms are being supervised. I think it's no big deal. "Kid, it's very simple. The telephone is mine, and if you want to use it you have to use it under my terms".
Probably, all of us working for a company, have also our communications supervised, cannot make personal phonecalls with the company's telephones, probably cannot navigate to webs looking for personal content, and we asume those rules (because neither the company's phones nor the computers are ours but our company's). It's basically the same, switching the company-employee role to a father-son one.
So, let's get to the point (technically). I am a tech-geek, linux pro-user, have compiled a few ROMs just for personal use, but don't feel capable enough of starting a project of these magnitude alone. If there is anyone willing to help, opine, or whatever, will be very welcome.
First of all, APP or ROM? I basically think that the ROM is the way to go, but I'm asking just in case someone can convince me on the contrary. I will make a poll on this question.
APP An APP could be easily downloaded and installed but would require a rooted phone, and I don't see it clearly if an APP could resolve all the needed issues (access to communications for example) and could be fairly easily uninstalled too.
ROM On the other hand, a ROM would be trickier to uninstall (basically flashing another ROM) but wouldn't be as easy to install as an APP (though the installer model of cyanogenmod could be kind of a solution). There could be an universal (if possible) independent flashable module, over whatever android ROM, or an entire ROM solution.
Features that I want to develop in this ROM (by the way, I call it 'Vigilante ROM'):
Suitable for as many devices as possible
Web interface for parents available to see device-related information
Some hack-proof measures to avoid kids bypassing the ROM's security
Alerts triggered on some events (offensive words, whatever)
Position of the mobile -just in case-
Suitable for as many devices as possible
The first thing I though was what platform should be used for this ROM. To select Android over others (iOS, Blackberry, W7) was a no-brainer. Now, the question is should we use pure Android or make a CyanogenMod fork?
In my opinion, even though every phone maker has to supply their ROM sources publicly, they usually introduce so many modifications (HTC Sense, Samsung Touchwizz and so on) that it looks more difficult to develop a common security framework over each manufacturer's version of Android, rather than using a more standardized one like CyanogenMod.
CyanogenMod already works with a wide number of devices (and a wider one if you count the unofficial supported devices), I think CyanogenMod should be the base of this ROM. If all the 'things' needed could be flash on top of any Android device, would be even better, but technically I need help with this one.
I understand that basically there should be an internal proxy setup, so that all the communications go through this internal proxy, and based on the kind of communication, we could log whatever we need. For example:
Visited URLs
Whatsapp or other messaging apps should be decrypted
Incoming/Outgoing calls/SMS
Social network activity
I know the Whatsapp protocol because I'm familiar with a project called WhatAPI. The key point to be able to intercept whatsapp messaging is a key generated and exchanged during the app install (although there are ways to later ask the Whatsapp server to renegotiate this keyword) and that's used later to encrypt all the messages between the phone and the whatsapp server.
Web interface for parents available to see device-related information
Behind every kid with a smartphone there should be a responsible adult supervising the kid -even if it's remotely-. In my idea, logs of messaging activity, incoming/outgoing calls/SMS and even the position should be available to the supervisor through a web interface.
Some hack-proof measures to avoid kids bypassing the ROM's security
That's an easy one. CRC checks on some keyfiles would guarantee that the device is not being 'counter-hacked'. Some kids are also very techie, and we should make some defences against kids trying to hack (counter-hack?) the phone.
Alerts triggered on some events (offensive words, whatever)
It could be interesting if somehow the supervisor could receive a notification whenever the kid sends/receives and offensive word, or tries to enter some special tagged website.
Hi all.
I have a rooted phone that is used strictly in wifi mode and only needs to be able to run 4 or 5 standard aps, a couple of optional aps, plus the aps that support rooted phones and enhanced power management. I don't want google-anything on it, and I am not kidding. My prime concern is battery life, I hope to be able to run my phone for 3 to 4 days (or more) between charges, so deleting all fluff aps and crapware is important, as is underclocking it and getting rid of google. I also want to stop updating of the operating system and installed software by google.
I hope to do a hardware mod to remove power from the cell band rf transceiver. Despite it being turned off in the phone using software, I am detecting occasional transmissions from the cell band transmitter. Hardware mods are not a problem for me, I'm a retired EE, who specialized in RF design.
I need to know if it's possible for the phone to function if gmail, google+, google search, chrome, google calendar and google-whatever are exhorsized (uninstalled)? Yes, I also want to give the playstore the boot, to prevent excessive battery drain (and, yes, I do realize downloading aps will be slightly more difficult without the playstore).
For those who might be interested, the phone is used as a wifi phone for the home based Ooma telephone service. I also might like to run a mini bittorrent server. It seems to me that the android community could use bittorrent in place of the playstore, thus making it easier for others to give google and google playstore the boot
I love this forum, and want to thank all those that support and administer it.
Aloha,
A
alohagirl said:
Hi all.
I have a rooted phone that is used strictly in wifi mode and only needs to be able to run 4 or 5 standard aps, a couple of optional aps, plus the aps that support rooted phones and enhanced power management. I don't want google-anything on it, and I am not kidding. My prime concern is battery life, I hope to be able to run my phone for 3 to 4 days (or more) between charges, so deleting all fluff aps and crapware is important, as is underclocking it and getting rid of google. I also want to stop updating of the operating system and installed software by google.
I hope to do a hardware mod to remove power from the cell band rf transceiver. Despite it being turned off in the phone using software, I am detecting occasional transmissions from the cell band transmitter. Hardware mods are not a problem for me, I'm a retired EE, who specialized in RF design.
I need to know if it's possible for the phone to function if gmail, google+, google search, chrome, google calendar and google-whatever are exhorsized (uninstalled)? Yes, I also want to give the playstore the boot, to prevent excessive battery drain (and, yes, I do realize downloading aps will be slightly more difficult without the playstore).
For those who might be interested, the phone is used as a wifi phone for the home based Ooma telephone service. I also might like to run a mini bittorrent server. It seems to me that the android community could use bittorrent in place of the playstore, thus making it easier for others to give google and google playstore the boot
I love this forum, and want to thank all those that support and administer it.
Aloha,
A
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There are threads all over the place trying to do this. Google is deeply ingrained into all the apks used by the os. You will be very hard pressed to find away to remove them completely and still have things work right.
I agree that security is an illusion. I dumped Microshaft in 2013 in order to improve my security and privacy.
However, the android operating system is supposed to be open source, so it should be possible to de-google-ize it IF someone knows how to edit and recompile the android OS.
I was merely asking if anyone knew of a way to give google the boot, even if it came down to paying someone to compile a custom rom.
The loss of google playstore is not a consideration, neither is a monetary forfeiture (any programmers out there?).
I'm curious, is it possible to gag google so it can't connect to the outside world (with a firewall)? We used to do this in XP to prevent Bill's Internet Explorer from downloading updates.
Are any of the custom roms currently available able to run without google-anything??
Is there any hope, or is it truly hopeless? If a custom rom that gave google the boot was available, how many would pay a small fee to have it? Just curious??!!
TY
A.
alohagirl said:
I agree that security is an illusion. I dumped Microshaft in 2013 in order to improve my security and privacy.
However, the android operating system is supposed to be open source, so it should be possible to de-google-ize it IF someone knows how to edit and recompile the android OS.
I was merely asking if anyone knew of a way to give google the boot, even if it came down to paying someone to compile a custom rom.
The loss of google playstore is not a consideration, neither is a monetary forfeiture (any programmers out there?).
I'm curious, is it possible to gag google so it can't connect to the outside world (with a firewall)? We used to do this in XP to prevent Bill's Internet Explorer from downloading updates.
Are any of the custom roms currently available able to run without google-anything??
Is there any hope, or is it truly hopeless? If a custom rom that gave google the boot was available, how many would pay a small fee to have it? Just curious??!!
TY
A.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is one project that is working on removing Google completely in the forums. A search will find it for you. There are some issues that I don't recall if they could find a way around or fix. You could give that a shot.
How would it be possible to make an android phone run my app on startup and not let the user out of the app unless they use a password
The device is created for our app.
Not sure about from start up, but you can use the screen pinning function in Lollipop or if it's running an older version of Android then you would need to create a kiosk type app.
Good luck!
There are 3 well known 'kiosk' apps available. They are all capable of doing what you want to a greater or lesser degree. (Kioware, Mobilock and Surelock ....others are available). The problem for you is the cost, if you intend to scale up your devices. If you are putting your app on a $20 Chinese tablet, then these apps listed above all want another $15 or so to install, which doubles your costs!
I'm looking at a similar problem, and I think the true answer is a specialist ROM with most of the opsys actually stripped out. Only problem with that is...... that it is WAY beyond my talents and abilities! I would be enormously interested in how you get on (without needing to know your application specifics). Keep in touch?
Paul